Oracle Database Discussions

Hi, all,

I know that with 11g, the preferred method for deleting old binaries is to use the deinstall tool (in $11G_HOME/deinstall/de-install). However, is it possible for me to delete older binaries using this tool?

For instance, my 11g ORACLE_HOME (i.e. the one that I want to keep and use) is /opt/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/db

And I have the following binaries on one particular database server:

oracle@myserver:/opt/oracle/product> ls

10.2 11.1 8.1.6.2 8.1.7.1 8.1.7.4 9.0.1.0 9.2.0.2 9.2.0.5 agent
10.2.0.3 11.2.0.3 8.1.7.0 8.1.7.3 8.1.7.4.32 9.0.1.1 9.2.0.4 9.2.0.6

As you can see, I have binaries dating to before the beginning of time (8.1.6, nice) and I’d like to be able to clean it up neatly.

I tried to deinstall (just running the checkonly, to make sure it 'sees' the older home) the 10.2 binaries using the 11g deinstall tool and got the following error:

/opt/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/db/deinstall/deinstall -home /opt/oracle/product/10.2/db -checkonly
Checking for required files and bootstrapping ...
Please wait ...

ERROR: -home must not be set for a deinstall running from within an ORACLE_HOME.
Deinstall of the current home is assumed.

Any thoughts? I absolutely don't want to deinstall the current home!

Mark